Environmental groups in South Florida said their legal fight over Alligator Alcatraz will continue, even after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the facility was being closed down.
Earthjustice, Friends of the Everglades, and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in June 2025 to enforce the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to evaluate the environmental impacts of major projects before they are approved. The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida joined the lawsuit to protect tribal rights.
In a scathing press release, the environmental groups hit out at the governor and said they plan to push forward with their lawsuits, demanding full remediation of the site.
“This outrageously expensive internment camp inflicted documented harm on the Everglades, and Gov. DeSantis and Attorney General Uthmeier are trying to sweep it under the rug. We won’t allow it. The public deserves a full, transparent assessment of the extent of the damage at ‘Alligator Alcatraz.’ We are poised to return to court to defend the Everglades and demand full remediation of the harm,” said Eve Samples, Executive Director of Friends of the Everglades in a press release.
READ MORE: Florida's 'Alligator Alcatraz' immigration detention center has closed, governor says
According to a Miami Herald analysis, DeSantis’ office has signed at least 55 contracts worth $1 billion over the past year for state-run immigration detention facilities. The majority of the contracts went toward Alligator Alcatraz.
At a press conference on Thursday, DeSantis claimed the facility was always meant to be only temporary until more permanent detention centers could be secured — and that federal officials now have that capacity. "It served its purpose for the time," the Republican governor said.
Immigration advocates said the facility was never safe or humane for holding people. Detainees have talked about their difficulty accessing lawyers and described poor physical conditions, including worms in the food, toilets that didn't flush, floors flooded with fecal waste, and mosquitoes and other insects everywhere.
The Workers Circle, a secular Jewish group that led "Freedom Vigils" for more than 40 weeks outside Alligator Alcatraz, celebrated the closure.
But the environmental groups who are part of the lawsuits said the announcement gave more momentum to their battle.
“The governor’s press conference confirmed the theory of our case. This facility was coordinated between the state and the Department of Homeland Security behind closed doors, built without public scrutiny, and operated in secrecy," said Paul J. Schwiep of Coffey Burlington and counsel for Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity in the press release.
"Now the administration believes it can quietly walk away and leave its mess for others to clean up. The law will not allow them to escape accountability. We will ask the courts to ensure that the environmental damage is fully addressed, that the site is restored, and that no future administration can repeat this mistake."
Elise Bennett, of the Center for Biological Diversity, said they will keep pushing for environmental remediation.
“Overwhelming opposition has forced Trump and DeSantis to scamper away from Alligator Alcatraz with their tails between their legs. Now we’ll make sure they clean up their mess and work to protect the entire site so a twisted boondoggle like this one never again darkens the doorstep of Big Cypress,” she said in the press release.
Meanwhile, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has asked county commissioners to sell the county’s jetport, on which the Alligator Alcatraz detention center sits, to Everglades National Park. The administration, she said, has consistently voiced concerns over use of parts of the site for the detention center and risks to ongoing efforts to restore the Everglades, a massive years-long project expected to cost more than $23 billion.
